June 22, 2015
Chapter One: An Interaction With a Teenager
Earlier this morning I dropped my younger daughter off at school to take the ACT test. As we got into the car she immediately turned the radio to her favorite station. Mumford & Sons' Believe was playing. Now, trying to connect with my 17 year old is always an iffy thing. Will I get merely grunts and groans to anything I say or a brisk reaction meant to shut down any conversation? I never know. The terrain is a minefield. Yet, I choose to traverse Read more [...]

June 21, 2015
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Not me (I never pretended to be a superhero when I hitchhiked). But close enough. In reality, I was alone and my flag was about a foot wide: big enough to see but small enough to avoid causing an international incident.[/raw]
Today is Midsummer. Here in the States we think of it as just the longest day of the year and the beginning of summer. But people who live much nearer the Arctic Circle celebrate this day with gusto. After all, on the opposite side of the calendar they have to Read more [...]

May 25, 2015
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My "portable" Sony Sterecorder 230[/raw]
As my wife and I drove the nine miles from our house to my daughter's dorm I said, "I hope that rug is gone. It's not even ours." I was in my organizing mode: how to pack up my daughter's things as efficiently as possible and get them home in our car, including a small refrigerator. The rug belonged to my daughter's roommate. She had moved out the night before and had offered the well-used industrial gray carpet to my daughter as a parting gift. Read more [...]

April 9, 2015
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For some strange reason I put my watch on upside down this morning. Time appeared backward the whole day. And each time I looked at my watch, just for a second, I was thrown off kilter, as if I had tripped and was trying to right myself. It seemed like time was mocking me and I wondered if anyone noticed.
I kept asking myself, "Why don't you just take off the stupid watch and put it on the right way?" But, I never had the time. This really wasn't getting me anywhere.
Telling Read more [...]

February 14, 2015
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Hundreds of Thousands of Leaves[/raw]
I lost my glasses. No, they weren't on my forehead. And, yes, I checked all the usual places multiple times. In fact, I knew exactly where I'd lost them. With a dust filter covering my mouth, my glasses kept steaming up as I raced to get our fallen foliage to the curb before the county vacuumed them up. I could hear their trucks coming but I couldn't see a thing so I put them in my pocket. And, without warning, my tortoise shell glasses were now Read more [...]